Cultural Perspectives on Maternal Comfort: An Integrative Review

INTRODUCTION: Nurses and midwives are providing care to a culturally diverse society. However, culture is a socially shared view and behavior practiced in a certain society and considered to be dynamic and not universal. This review seeks to analyze and synthesize evidence on cultural aspects of comfort in the perinatal period to provide definition of cultural maternal comfort in nursing and midwifery practice. METHODOLOGY: An integrative review conducted following Whittemore and Knafl. Systematic searches in CINAHL and Scopus databases generated 10 studies for review. After all eligible articles had been identified, data extraction and inductive thematic analysis were performed. RESULTS: The cultural aspect of maternal comfort includes culturally effective communication, culturally supportive environment, cultural practice for physical symptom relief, cultural expectation of functionality, family and community involvement, and cultural safety and security. DISCUSSION: When health-care professionals, particularly nurses and midwives, understand a woman's cultural background, they promote trust, enhance communication, and ultimately improve childbearing and childbirth experiences.